Thanks a billion: Making names pay

Words are free. Well, they start out free, anyway. When developing a new name for a product, service, or business, it's easy to window-shop, imagining how your brand might look wearing this word or that. Then the search gets serious, and you spend time and creative effort to find ones that represent your business accurately. An investment in linguistic and validation research follows, and the ever-important trademark registration. At what point, exactly, does a word transform from a handful of letters into a valuable asset that's synonymous with the brand it represents?

It takes time and investment to turn a word into a widely recognized brand, but it can pay off handsomely. Forbes noted that names can come to comprise a major portion of a business's total valuation: "'Google,' 'Walmart' and 'Microsoft'—all trademarked names—represent a significant chunk of their owners' overall worth." This means, potentially, billions of dollars.

And the equity in a name goes beyond dollar signs. It has the power to inspire, to differentiate, to help your audiences understand that you're the right choice. It's a simple sound, a few syllables, yet it can have the power to move markets.

So how did the journey from "apple" to Apple™ happen? A word becomes a billion-dollar asset when iconic products are combined with concerted brand-building efforts. This special mixture yields value—a value that's captured in the name. As that value grows, so does the need to protect the name from misuse and outright piracy. Enter trademark legal.

Brands and trademarks are often considered synonymous. They're related, but far from the same. You can register a trademark and not have a valuable brand, but it's impossible to build a valuable brand without owning its trademark.

Trademarks are the quickest, most cost-effective way to ensure your name is exclusively yours. As every brand owner knows, differentiation is key. As the value of your brand and name grows, it's the power of the trademark that keeps would-be infringers at bay. For this reason, "the strength of its trademark defines the power of your brand."

Owning a trademark doesn't guarantee your name or the brand behind it will become a billion-dollar asset. But it does provide the legal foundation on which you can build a free word into a prized aspect of your brand's identity.

This week's guest authors are Jerome McDonnell, Global Trademark Director, and Ilan Beesen, Senior Consultant, Verbal Identity.

Freedom of—and from—choice

We live in a choice-mad world. Choice is part of personal expression. The way we customize, upgrade, and add-on tells people something about who we are. Our choices are badges—Mac or PC, dog or cat, Coke or Pepsi—and we can't help but feel more invested in something when we've picked it ourselves.

What about when you can't see the product for the names—when too much choice is actually hurting you in the market? When it comes to brands, the amount of choice they present has a powerful impact on the way people understand what they offer.

Limitless choice sounds like a beautiful concept until you're handed a 20-page spiral bound menu at a diner and asked to hurry up. Contrast that with a single-page tasting menu at a high-end restaurant. There might be no choice at that point. You're going to eat what the chef serves, but in all likelihood you made a choice to go to that restaurant for that very reason. The curation and the expertise behind the menu make the highly limited option the best one.

Of course there's no magic formula for deciding how much choice is right for customers in your category, but a naming system helps them sort through your offerings in a meaningful way. When like things are named in a like way, and grouped based on principles that are intuitive to the customer experience and authentic to the brand, it's easier for your audiences to zero in on exactly what they want. What a beautiful choice.

Developing a naming system for your brand is a challenge when you're crafting it from scratch. It's even more daunting when you're designing something for a long-standing portfolio (especially one that's picked up a few acquisitions along the way). We've summarized the top nine things to think about when coming up with your naming system at the right in All Systems Go.

This week's guest author, Caitlin Barrett, is Associate Director of Verbal Identity for Interbrand and the creative lead for Naming.

A wig for your eyelashes? A naming system with a sweet tooth? A beer for a marathon? Interbrand New York’s Verbal Identity team on what names grabbed their attention this month:

Burn Note is an app fit for a secret agent. Send an email and Burn Note will destroy it once it's read. The name is clever for the category, where the majority of "security" and "privacy" apps are named using exactly those words.		Pssssst! is the name of a dry shampoo. It's also a wink and a nod. A wink to your little secret ("Pssssst! My hair only looks like its been washed"); a nod towards the sound that the spray makes. It's rare to find an onomatopoeia that is both expressive of the product and the customer experience.		Pinch Food Design is a catering company. The name encompasses Pinch's philosophy: that "just a pinch" of something can make an experience richer and more wonderful.
Fiberwig LX Mascara sounds like something you'd put on your head, not your eyelashes. The name points to the popularity of false lashes: the "fiber," or threadlike structure, makes this mascara a "wig" for your eyelashes.		Wag.com is the name of a pet food delivery service. Yes, it's the wag of a pet's tail, but it's also illustrative of the back and forth movement, or exchange, that happens with delivery. The company's tagline says it: "You sit. We fetch."		Exp.Lore.com follows a necessary trend in URL naming, splitting up the word with a period to make the URL available. The split suits the site:Exp.Lore.com is a discovery (e.g. "Exp," or explore) engine for meaningful knowledge, fueled by cross-disciplinary curiosity (e.g. "Lore," a body of knowledge held by a particular group and passed via word of mouth).
Fastrack is the name of MTA New York City's subway maintenance initiative. It’s descriptive of the transit system (a "fast track"), yet hopeful: the name aims to get travellers "fast" on "track."		Key Lime Pie is the name of the Android's latest operating system. It follows a succession of other deliciously named O.S. for the Android: JellyBean, Ice Cream Sandwich, Honey Comb, Gingerbread, et al. These names aren't just sweet, but smart: look closely and you’ll see another system in place (an alpha naming system).		Chidagos is a portmanteau name, combining "Chicago" and "hot dog." A name that cleverly suggests the name of a famous city; and a food that city's famous for.
Samuel Adams 26.2 is a specialty "marathon" beer made by Sam Adams for the Boston Marathon. The name is specialty for its insider reference: 26.2 is the number of miles in a marathon (not the alcohol content of the beer)

Written by Wynne Renz & Verbal Identity New York's Naming Team